Windows, macOS, major Linux distributions, FreeBSD, VMware, and Xen on x86 AMD and Intel CPUs are affected by a serious security flaw caused by operating system developers misinterpreting debug documentation from the two chip makers.

The affected OS and hypervisor makers on Tuesday released fixes for the common flaw that may allow an authenticated attacker "to read sensitive data in memory or control low-level operating system functions", according to CERT.

Patches are available from Apple, DragonFly BSD, FreeBSD, Microsoft, Red Hat, SUSE Linux, Ubuntu, VMware, and Xen. In the case of Linux distributions, there are two separate issues that affect the Linux kernel and the kernel's KVM hypervisor. Links to all available updates are available in the CERT advisory.